[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Portland, not Real Salt Lake, will join Sporting Kansas City, the New York Red Bulls and D.C. United as the fourth U.S.
representative in the 2014-15 Concacaf Champions League following its approval of the U.S. Soccer’s request to amend the qualification process to give a berth to the winner of the conference
opposite the MLS Supporters’ Shield winner, not the MLS Cup runner-up.

In January, MLS proposed the change to the USA’s qualification rules that was submitted by U.S. Soccer
for Concacaf approval, which came Friday at the meeting of its executive committee.

MLS believes that this change would make finishing first in each conference more significant.

If one team were to qualify with multiple berths or a Canadian MLS team were to qualify, the berth would then go to the U.S. MLS team with the next best regular season record.

While I can understand the reasoning behind this decision, it really should have been made before the 2013 MLS season, not after. The decision should have been made effective the next season, not retroactive on the already completed season.

DonJuego Lee

commented on: December 14, 2013 at 8:58 p.m.

Ken Jamieson you are exactly right. This is tantamount to changing the rules after the game. RSL deserves that CCL spot.
It is unbelievable how often Garber will compromise his integrity.

Andrew Muzik

commented on: December 15, 2013 at 6:56 a.m.

CONCACAF is in charge of the CCL league. They are the ones who decide which teams will be included. MLS submitted this in January to US Soccer,I don't know if anyone asked that it be effective at a certain time or season. But CONCACAF didn't have to abide by such a request anyway.